Kukla's Korner Hockey

The other reason I give Howe the edge over Gretzky is that you never heard him complain about the rough treatment he received from opponents. Howe didn’t need Dave Semenko riding shotgun. Opponents took on Howe at their peril and his elbows were legendary. He dropped the gloves often enough that he gave his name to the Gordie Howe hat trick, which consisted of a goal, an assist and a fighting major.

The gathering at centre ice last night wasn’t as emotional as some of the spectacles staged by the Canadiens, but it produced enough nostalgia for Howe to remark: “I feel like elbowing someone.”

Anyways, in the second intermission the topic of ownership change in Nashville came up, and both Stellick and his comrade Bill Watters launched into a diatribe repeatedly calling Nashville a “false hockey market”, and offering their sage prediction that in three years Boots Del Biaggio will move the squad to Kansas City. Of course they were probably just playing to the home television audience, but the utter lack of class towards the Nashville organization and its fanbase was insulting.

The NHL’s biggest problem in the U.S. remains an absolute lack of coverage from the talking heads on all the shouting columnist shows, and the sportscenter-style highlight shows. Coverage is through the roof still in Canada, and much of Europe, but not here. It will NOT surprise me one bit if, in 20 years or less, the NHL is primarily based in Canada and Europe. Anybody who doesn’t believe me should check out the numbers in European arenas for games, especially in the Super League in Russia - which is paying NHL-comparable salaries for most players now.

Just about every team is running hot and cold this season. In Ottawa, the once-mighty Senators are barely showing a pulse. The Devils couldn’t do anything right in October; now they can’t lose. Dallas fired the general manager a few weeks ago. Now the Stars lead the Pacific Division.

Atlanta, Montreal and Toronto are among the other cities where wins and losses come in bunches. Most other teams are ambling along at a win-one-lose-one pace. Carolina was pounded 8-1 by Buffalo (last in the Northeast Division) last weekend, and rebounded to beat the Rangers (first in the Atlantic) two days later.

The Montreal Canadiens commemorated their 81 year-old rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings before the two Original Six teams played their only game of the season Tuesday.

It is that disparity in the NHL’s current schedule that has Red Wings Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay believing that Detroit will never have a similar rivalry with another team ever again.

Lindsay said Tuesday that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is to blame if attendance numbers are down in Detroit because fans in Hockeytown are sick of seeing teams like Columbus and Nashville so often every year.

“We had it for a couple of years there with Colorado and Detroit, but Bettman has taken advantage of Detroit because of it being a great hockey city and it being a well managed hockey team,” Lindsay said.

Lamoriello said the problem has been with a malfunctioning computer that is supposed to regulate the ice’s temperature, hardness, etc. These things can be affected by numerous factors: the outdoor temperature, humidity, being covered for basketball games, concerts and other events. For Sunday’s game against Atlanta, they turned off the computer and changed the settings manually. The idea, however, is to get the computer working properly.

“We’ve been talking to CIMCO and had people from the NHL here to work on (the ice),” Lamoriello said. “This is the best system in the country. There’s no excuse not to have the best ice. We’re completely comfortable that this is all going to get straightened out.”

Truth be told, the player the Ducks would most like to ship out is Todd Marchant who earns $2.517 million - too much for what he brings to the table as a fourth-line checking forward. Who would take Marchant, up front, at the figure? No one. That’s why the Ducks might need to get creative to make a deal happen. Someone with salary-cap space might take Marchant off their hands, provided Anaheim sweetened the deal by including their own 2008 first-round choice in the transaction.

Todd Marchant admitted it was a tough pill to swallow Sunday when he was a healthy scratch for only the second time in his 14-year career.

“As a player, I’m not happy about it, but the only thing I can do is control what I can control,”

Marchant has been moved around the forward spots and played on mulitple lines this season. Coach Randy Carlyle said he would like to see more tenacity from Marchant, a former Olympian who has been known as one of the faster skaters in the NHL.

“Todd Marchant’s a skating hockey player, and he’s got to be on the puck all the time,” Carlyle said. “My expectations for our whole group are that we have to more of a skating group.”